The Pink Shirt
by Suki-Alanna
Summary: The pink shirt was a myth at Hogwarts. Very few people know the truth behind how the shirt appeared. Transfiguration, snogging and cut off speeches.


**AN: This is slightly AU—Penelope was never petrified. Some other girl was instead. It was written for the 2012 Hogwarts Olympic Games. The event was Breaststroke 1000-2000.**

**Pairings: one-sided Percy/Penelope, Harry/Ginny friendship, Penelope/unnamed girl, Percy/Oliver Wood**

**(Just as a side note, 100 stories. :) )**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

Penelope was reading a thick book when Percy finally found her. He adjusted his tie. He had been working on his speech for months. He was finally going to ask her to be his exclusive girlfriend. He had practiced in front of the mirror for an hour earlier that day. "Penelope," he said.

She looked up and smiled. "Oh, hi, Percy. I was looking for you."

"Penelope, we've been dating for awhile and I would like to discuss something about our relationship and how I believe we should change it—"

Percy was cut off by Penelope. "Oh, good, you understand. It's not that I don't like you, Percy, you're a very good friend, it's just that... well... I've been examining my life recently with the help of some of my other friends, and I came to the conclusion that—"

"We should be exclusive?" Percy suggested, even though he knew it was in vain.

"I like women," Penelope finished. "Wait, what?"

Percy was staring at her, his mouth wide open. "_What?"_ He managed to choke out.

"This was why I didn't want to tell you," Penelope said. She was twisting her hands in her lap and looking ashamed of herself. "I knew you would react badly. But maybe you can understand. Please, Percy? Your friendship means a lot to me, and I trust your opinions."

"I-I think I need to go," Percy managed to say.

"I know this may be hard, Percy, and I'm just as confused as you, but hopefully we can work through all of this and still be friends," Penny said, even though she knew that Percy wasn't really hearing her.

Percy turned and ran. Penelope, his dear Penelope, had just broken up with him. She was dead to him. He, luckily, ran into his little sister. "Ginny?"

"Percy, can I—"

"I need to speak to you, Gin. I need your opinion," he said.

"Oh, okay," she said, following behind him quietly. She was holding a Transfiguration textbook, but Percy didn't seem to notice as he led her towards an empty classroom.

Ginny was finally cracking open her Transfiguration textbook in one of the older classrooms that looked abandoned when the door opened. She looked up at the ceiling as though it would tell her why she couldn't get any peace.

Penelope Clearwater snuck in and spotted Ginny. "Sorry!" She squeaked. "I'll... find somewhere else."

"No, it's fine," Ginny replied. "I was just leaving. I have a feeling I'm not going to get much more studying done."

"Thanks," Penelope said. She held the door open for Ginny to squeeze past her and Ginny did gratefully. She decided to go find Hermione. The older girl could definitely help her with her homework and probably would if Ginny asked nicely.

"Nice shirt," she said right before she walked away.

Harry Potter was searching for Ginny. She had recently come clean about all of the events that had happened and everything that Tom had written to her, and he was worried that she was still having bad nightmares. Well, that was his excuse. Mostly she was just really nice even though she was just Ron's little sister to him, and he was interested in her being a friend. He wondered why he'd never really noticed her before.

He was in the old, abandoned Transfiguration corridor, commonly called Snog Row, though he didn't know it at the time. He opened a door near the beginning to look for Ginny and was instead was hit in the face by a pink shirt. He pulled it away from his face and saw Penelope Clearwater, who he vaguely remembered kissing Percy once, trying to desperately cover her chest. Behind her was another girl, peering around. Harry turned bright red and slammed the door before running. He was halfway down the hallway before he noticed that he hadn't returned Penelope's shirt. He dropped it like a hotcake and continued to pursue Ginny. That pink shirt would later become a Hogwarts legend involving three cans of tuna, Nearly Headless Nick and a converse sneaker.

Oliver Wood had just entered the Gryffindor common room, smelling as bad as a horse, as he had just finished trying out a new maneuver with Fred and George. He tromped up to the common room. Percy Weasley, who Oliver thought of as a bit of a pompous ass, was sitting on his bed, looking utterly heartbroken. Oliver ignored him in favor of taking a shower and changing, but when he emerged, hair dripping, Percy was still sitting there looking forlorn.

"Okay, who died?" Oliver asked, knowing he would later hate himself for speaking to the pompous Prefect, but he wasn't in the habit of ignoring people who might fill his dorm with salt water.

"What?" Percy asked. He looked up and Oliver could see tear marks running down his face. He didn't look very good in general—his face was bright red and his eyes looked suspiciously wet.

"You're crying," Oliver said, gesturing in the general direction of Percy's face. "Who died?"

Percy looked back down at his hands, clasped on his lap. "No one."

Oliver sighed internally and crossed the room to take a seat next to Percy on the bed. "Tell me. It'll make you feel better, and I won't tell your idiot brothers whatever it is."

"I was dating Penelope Clearwater," Percy said quietly, not looking up, "and today I was going to ask her if we could be exclusive."

"And she dumped you?" Oliver was looking to get out of it quickly. "I'm so sorry. You'll get over it. Give it time."

"She told me she liked girls," Percy said tonelessly.

"Same difference. It's nothing huge, Weasley. Happens all the time. Nothing to cry over. Man up and find yourself someone else—"

Percy's lips landed on Oliver's then. It was clumsy and odd and not at all like kisses Oliver had had previously, but it wasn't all that bad considering. He smiled at Percy when they broke apart. "Just like that." Percy kissed him again.

Ginny looked up at Harry. "I have a feeling we should..."

"Run?" Harry suggested.

They took off, hand in hand, laughing. They had no cares in the world for those few minutes. They were happy to just be friends.


End file.
